Introduction of Ray Lebeau, to conduct the Service of Remembrance.

Transcription

1 Supplementary Radio (SUPRAD) System Oldtimer s Association Annual Reunion - Service of Remembrance Gloucester Cairn & Greely Legion - 26 June 2016 at 09:00Hrs Welcome from Wayne Moore (Names of any Guests of Honour), Special Guests, Members of the Supplementary Radio System Oldtimers Association, Ladies and Gentlemen and Friends... good morning and welcome to our Annual Reunion - Service of Remembrance. Introduction of Ray Lebeau, to conduct the Service of Remembrance. I want to start by expressing a sincere thanks to everyone for taking the time to attend this Sunday morning ceremony. We have joined together to remember, and to celebrate the lives, of our SUPRAD Life Members, friends and spouses who have passed away since our June 2015 reunion. To me, and I am sure to many of you, this is the most important event of the SUPRAD System Oldtimer s Association Reunion week-end. Members of our Association have been gathering at the site of this HMCS Gloucester Cairn since Before then, we conducted this Service of Remembrance at the Greely Legion when it was located in the Town of Greely. For the past twenty-two years, since 1994, thanks mainly to the dedication and leadership of our friends, Wayne Moore, Butch Whitlaw and Lynn Wortman, we have been privileged to be members of the Supplementary Radio (SUPRAD) System Oldtimer s Association. Our Association has enabled each one of us to keep in touch with one another from coast - to coast - to coast, and to continue to enjoy each others valuable gift of friendship. Our website at Online Oldtimers which was started by Irv Finkleman, and is now managed by Jim Troyanek, is a great resource for keeping up-to-date on what s happening within our SUPRAD family. As well, I would like to express a sincere thank you to Dave Berry, for the work he did in building a Locator Map for all of the SRS Oldtimer s Association Life Members. You can find the Locator Map on the online oldtimers website. Life Membership in our Association unites us as brothers and sisters. We served in isolated and semi-isolated communities in Gander, Masset, Bermuda, Inuvik, Aklavik, Frobisher Bay, Churchill and out of country. We did most of our Radioman Special trades training at Gloucester, and we proudly served as members of the Frozen Chozen at the most northern permanently inhabited settlement in the world, Alert. 1

2 The official motto of our Association is Friends Forever. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, the only way to have a friend is to be one. As members of the SUPRAD System Oldtimer s Association, we have LOTS OF FRIENDS! And better yet, when we proudly say that we are Friends Forever, we truly and honestly MEAN IT! Following yesterday s golf tournament, I listened to Bob Todd say that he spoke to retired military members who told him that they wished they had what we have. We are called Oldtimers for a good reason. Many of us can go can back thirty, forty and yes, even more than fifty years. It goes without saying that the members of the SUPRAD community are a very close-knit military family. In addition to getting together during our Annual Reunions at Canadian Forces Station Lietrim, the SUPRAD Home Station, we have celebrated each others birthdays and anniversaries and extended best wishes to those recovering from an illness. We have shared in the excitement of becoming grand-parents, great grand-parents and some even GREAT-GREAT grand-parents. Today, as I said earlier, we are here to remember, and to celebrate, the lives of friends and loved ones who have gone before us. This Gloucester Cairn was built in memory of our comrades and loving family members and it was entirely funded through donations from the members of our Association. Mr. Van Geffen, who was born in Holland, constructed the cairn. He respected Canadians for their heroic efforts in freeing Holland in 1945, and to recognize this, he placed a 1945 nickel that he had been saving for years, in the cairn. With Ren Molnar, acting as the Master of Ceremonies, the dedication of this Cairn took place on the 25 th of June For all those who have not read the inscription on the plaque, it reads as follows: Opened in 1943 as a Naval Radio Station utilizing High Frequency Direction Finding to aid in the combat against German U-boats in WWII, Gloucester evolved into a military Signals Intelligence communications and training establishment. This monument is dedicated to the men and women who trained and served at this site. Their many contributions to the security of this nation must never be forgotten. In War, or in peace, it matters not, the mission does not change. Let us now lovingly remember the 34 SUPRAD family members and friends, and 3 beloved spouses, who have passed away since our June 2015 reunion. All those who were Life Members of our Association, are marked with small crosses on the copper leaves of a Life Member Tree that is displayed in the foyer of the All Ranks Mess at Leitrim. Thank you to Lynn Wortman, and Butch Whitlaw, for the creation and installation of our SUPRAD Life Member Tree. 2

3 (read the 37 names and take a brief pause after each one is read) (see separate attachment with the names) Minute of Silence Please join me now by observing one Minute of Silence to remember all those SUPRAD family members who proudly served within the Supplementary Radio System and have gone before us. (One minute silence) WE WILL REMEMBER THEM Response: WE WILL REMEMBER THEM Lament John Virag will play a bagpipe lament following the Minute of Silence Cairn Honorees to 2016 For the past nine years, at our SUPRAD System Oldtimer s Reunion, we have paid a special tribute to one of our deceased colleagues by making them an honoree. Former SUPRAD Oldtimer s Cairn dedications have been presented to: Irene McLean, Mac Feeley, Bill Hillaby, Ralph Kunkle, Morley McAllister, John Lawther, George Fraser and Gib Walker. In 2014, which was the SRS Oldtimer s Association 20 th Anniversary, we included all of the Life Members who had passed away during the previous twenty years. In 2015, the honoree was Bob Ritchie. Today, I am very pleased and truly honored to announce that from this day forward, rather than naming one honoree each year, we will be honoring all SUPRAD Oldtimer s Association Life Members who passed away during the previous year. Today, we will remember, and pay tribute, to 21 SUPRAD System Oldtimer s Association Life Member honorees who passed away from 2014 to They are: Ruurd Doc Abma Ian Cleat John Crampton 3

4 Benny Crooks John Jack Dickison Ray Eastman Bob Enns Bruce Gilbert Hjalmar Hank Hansen Bob Rufus King John Kurchynski Don Shady Lane Elizabeth Larkman Laughin Lock Laurie John Murison Gerry Ouellette Norm Paine Gerry Pinard Dan Rees Art Reynolds John Tug Wilson One other member who recently passed away (12 June 2016) and will have her name on the Cairn Honoree list is Katherine Kate Bruce. Friendship Poem To this year s honorees and friends, I would like to share this verse from a poem titled Friendship: I d like to be... the sort of friend that you have been to me, I d like to be the help that you are always glad to be. I d like to mean as much to you each minute of the day, As you have meant, old friend of mine, to me along the way. Prayer Let us now conclude our Service of Remembrance by praying together, the Lord s Prayer: Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done On earth as it is in Heaven 4

5 Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses As we forgive those who trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the kingdom The power and the glory, Forever and ever. Amen Thanks again to Wayne Moore, Butch Whitlaw, Lynn Wortman and Jim Troyanek for their continued hard work and dedication towards keeping our close-knit SUPRAD family together. (Turn the ceremony back to Wayne Moore to wrap-up and express thanks to all those who contributed to the Service of Remembrance) Thank You Thanks again to everyone for attending today s Service of Remembrance Thanks to Jean-Guy Rodrigue for his donation of Maple Syrup and Maple Butter Thank you to John Virag for being our Service of Remembrance piper Thanks to Vern Vienot for the use of his PA system Thanks to Lynda Wyman and members of the Greely Legion for preparing brunch. Thanks to Lynn Wortman for doing up the SUPRAD System Oldtimer s Association letter with all of the Life Member honorees names. Other thanks: March to Brunch Please congregate behind our piper and follow him back to the Gloucester Legion for brunch. 5

6 Brunch / Wrap Up We want you to come back and look forward to seeing everyone again at next year s SUPRAD System Oldtimer s Association Reunion. For all those who traveled here today, when you leave to return home, we wish you a safe and pleasant journey. (Other miscellaneous notes, etc.) 6